USA Africa Dialogue Series - Status does not insulate against Racism

A few quick thoughts as our anguished reflections on the tragedy in Minneapolis continues.......

Do not be deceived. Success, however defined, and good education can no more insulate a black person from racism than it can cure a white person of racial prejudice. 

George Floyd could have been a Harvard University Professor and it would not have made a difference to the racist cops who murdered him. 

It didn't make a difference for Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. when he was racially profiled in his own home; nor did status and accomplishment protect countless black celebrities and successful men and women from being racially harassed. 

Even Oprah was racially profiled at a high-end store in Switzerland, even though she probably has enough money to buy the entire store and trash it for fun.

Success and good education did not stop Amy Cooper, a white liberal investment banker, from trying to get a black man killed by cops in New York's Central Park.

As Ibram X Kendi argues compellingly in his book, STAMPED FROM THE BEGINNING, the idea that black people can buy the approval of white folks and thus get a pass from racism by uplifting themselves morally and socioeconomically to reassure the white power structure--what he calls uplift-suasion-- is not only wrong but is itself a form of racism.

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